Board To Let Special Olympians Use Buses

Newport News Special Olympic athletes may use school buses to get back and forth to their practices and competitions, the city School Board agreed Wednesday night.

The board voted in favor of an agreement that calls for the city and school system to share in the transportation costs for the city's Special Olympic athletes.

The matter came before the board as a result of concerns raised by the school district's transportation director about providing an outside organization with school bus services.

For years, Special Olympic athletes were getting rides on a school bus to their events thanks to school bus driver Queen "Bunny" Acrie.

But Newport News Public Schools transportation director Frank Labrecque questioned the use of school buses for Special Olympics this past summer while reviewing his department's records. He said he was reluctant to provide an outside organization school bus transportation because other groups would want it, too. He also worried there were more passengers on the bus than just school district students. Special Olympic athletes range in age from elementary school children to adults.

That's why school and city officials crafted an agreement. The school system will be responsible for the transportation costs of the children involved in Special Olympics, while the city will pay for the adults, the agreement says.

School officials included $5,000 in the school system's budget for the athletes' transportation and expect to do so again in the coming budget. The city expects to spend $7,500 the rest of the year on the transportation, and could spend as much as $16,000 in one year.

The City Council is expected to vote on the matter later this month.

In other business:

* Nine people came before the board to speak about what they wanted to see in the coming budget. Six of the speakers were school nurses who said they are inadequately paid for the work they do.

"We are seeing more and more students in each of our clinics," said Carol Weaver, school nurse at Gildersleeve Middle School.

And, the nurses said, they are seeing more students with complex problems, such as diabetes and asthma. They presented the board with written observations, which included their finding that almost half of the school nurses earn the minimum of their pay scale at $21,630.

Other speakers talked of a need to increase pay for teachers and to continue funding technology in the schools.

* The board agreed to reschedule a public hearing on the budget from March 14 to March 13. The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at the school district administration building auditorium at 12465 Warwick Blvd.

* The board appointed Jacob Wilson, Kiln Creek Elementary School's principal, to become principal of Passage Middle School. Passage is the district's new middle school that is scheduled to open this fall.

Stephanie Barrett can be reached at 247-4740 or by e-mail at sbarrett@dailypress.com